


Kiss Like a Lightning Storm

by mintsinthemug



Category: South Park
Genre: Dumb oblivious boy falls in love, M/M, Slow Build, Trans Character, Trans Kenny, Trans Kyle, Trans Male Character, also lowkey, and no one is surprised, bc fuck yes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-12
Updated: 2016-05-12
Packaged: 2018-06-07 22:14:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6827203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintsinthemug/pseuds/mintsinthemug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>That weird lung-flutter hits him every time he sees Kyle. Stan’s starting to think it’s not a medical thing anymore. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kiss Like a Lightning Storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bendys and belovedhomosexuals on tumblr](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=bendys+and+belovedhomosexuals+on+tumblr).



> This is for tumblr users @bendys and @belovedhomosexuals who now owe me a firstborn child lmao.
> 
> This is disgustingly short in my opinion but I'm not good at nsfw and I've run out of ideas whoops. 
> 
> Cartman is barely mentioned because I like to think he stopped hanging out with the gang once Kyle came out. Totally not because I don't know how to write him. lmao...
> 
> Hope you two like it! This was fun, im sorry if its not what you wanted but i hope you can enjoy these dumb gay boys anyways??

Stan grew up with him, knew him when his hair was long and he kept it tucked in a bun under his hat. So it isn't until fifth grade, when he runs up and punches Stan in the arm hard that Stan finally knows his real name. He's wearing his dumb green hat but it's quickly pulled off to reveal freshly cut, short curls. Stan _oohs_ and _ahs_ but when he says “It looks really good, Kylie,” he gets another hard punch in the arm, the kind of punches saved for Cartman. “I'm a boy so call me Kyle,” and even though he's trying to look confident, Kyle’s ears have turned red. 

Stan shrugs because he doesn't really understand it but if it makes Kylie- Kyle happy then he'll go with it. “Okay, Kyle. You're hair looks good,”

Kyle’s smile is so wide Stan thinks it might outshine the sun. 

(When they watch movies that weekend, Kyle lays his head in Stan’s lap and lets him comb through the new short hair. He’s never really seen Kyle without his hat, he thinks it’s a nice look.)

-

In sixth grade, Stan actually does his research because Kyle’s been extra moody lately and it's driving him up the walls. First he tries Google but it's all mixed up and confusing so next he tries Kenny. 

Kenny explains it better. They spend the evening hucking rocks into Stark’s Pond when skipping them won't work. Kenny explains dysphoria and how Kyle might be getting his period so he probably feels ten times worse on top of that. It makes a bit more sense, Stan guesses. He doesn’t know why, and doesn’t ask, but Kenny’s always been smart with this stuff. The stuff they won’t teach you in school.

The next day at school he breaks into Kyle’s locker and leaves a bag of Dove chocolate there. At lunch Kyle punches him in the eye instead of the arm and its bruised by the time Stan gets home from football practice. Kyle still climbs up his gutter that night though, slips through the window with sopping wet socks because he didn’t put on shoes. They watch movies on Stan’s shitty box tv and eat chocolate together.

(Neither apologize but the way Kyle uses Stan’s stomach as a pillow that night feels like forgiveness and an unusual flutter starts up near Stan’s lungs. He hopes it isn’t asthma or something.)

-

In seventh grade, Stan takes Wendy to the Back To School Dance, even though tickets are ten bucks each and you have to pay for drinks and food. He tucks the shirt he uses for church into his nice, dark jeans and Kyle loans him a blazer that’s too short in the arms. Kyle doesn’t give it to him though, Kenny delivers it that morning. Its folded nicely and the sticky note attached reads: _‘Have fun with your date, Stanley’_. Kyle calls him Stanley all the time in teasing so he can’t figure out why it suddenly feels like an insult. 

The dance blows, they play shitty clean remixes of songs from the year before’s Top 40s chart and no one is dancing except for the girls and Kenny. Stan blew all his money on tickets and Wendy didn’t bring any money with her so they’re both hungry. An hour in, Wendy says the noise is giving her a headache so they sit in the hallway outside the cafeteria where its eerily quiet. After a painful amount of complaining about school and small talk about the past summer’s activities, (Stan went to football camp, watched movie marathons with Kyle, went to the beach, went camping with Kyle. Wendy went to photography camp and spent three weeks only knowing Craig, visited family in Nebraska, brought Bebe to Disney World, took dance lessons with Bebe. ) Stan leans in to kiss Wendy because they haven’t kissed since before they broke up in sixth grade and Stan assumed this meant they were dating. Wendy pushes him back with her forearm and looks him in the eye. She’s wearing purple eyeshadow and her dress is a size too big, probably from goodwill. She has lipstick on her teeth and Stan hardly hears what she says because he’s too busy noticing this but the message still gets through. 

“Stan, I’m a lesbian,”

Stan nods, nods like he knew all along and he wonders if he’s blushing even though he isn’t really upset. He pretends to be because Wendy thinks he is. She pats his arm and says she can get a ride home from Craig if he wants to leave. He nods some more and texts Shelly with Wendy rubbing his shoulder. She waits out on the steps of the school with him even though it’s cold enough to get goosebumps. Stan doesn’t offer up Kyle’s blazer, it feels like he’d be breaking a rule, and Wendy doesn’t seem to mind. She waves him off and says that she’s really sorry and maybe they can sit together at lunch next week. Stan forces a small smile and says that’d be nice. 

He and Shelly don’t talk in the car. She drops him off at the curb in front of their house and says she’s going back to her friend’s house if he needs her. Stan guesses she isn’t that much of a bitch when she ruffles his hair and tells him not to beat himself up over anything. He goes to bed hungry even though it’s only ten and he could totally make something. 

He tosses and turns, takes his blazer off and hangs it on his desk chair, untucks his shirt, checks the window. He’s let two cable movies play through and fights the urge to check the window for the third time in nearly four hours. Instead he puts on his shoes and grabs the blazer.

There are still lights on in Kyle’s room and Stan feel a bit guilty when he remembers Kyle’s parents were out of town for a few days. He wonders if that’s why Kenny gave him the jacket and not Kyle. He wonders if Kyle’s pissed at him and he’s already forming an apology by the time he reaches the front door. He hits the doorbell and waits but it’s only getting colder and no one’’s answered. He tries the knock they made up in fourth grade for when Kyle sneaks to Stan’s window and waits again. Still no answer and his fingers are going numb so he folds the jacket up as neatly as he can and leaves it on the doormat.

Stan can’t sleep when he gets back into bed. He’s not hungry anymore, just upset. His chest feels tight and his eyes burn. He doesn’t think it’s because of Wendy anymore so he stops pretending it is.  
(He and Kyle don’t talk much that year, Kyle gets paired with Craig and Token for a big science project so he sits with them at lunch most of the first semester. Which is fine, Stan insists, he’s been meaning to bond with Kenny more anyways. The second semester they find excuses not to hang out; Kyle’s going to the movies with Clyde and Token, Stan’s picketing a local animal circus with Wendy and her new girlfriend. On the last week of school, Kyle knocks on Stan’s window. They both apologize this time though Stan still isn’t sure why they were fighting in the first place. )

-

In eighth grade, Kyle gets a binder. Stan knows because he woke up with Kyle jostling his shoulder, five minutes before his alarm was set to go off. He groggily sits up to see Kyle sitting next to him in bed wearing a clinically white tank top. 

“My chest is flat!” 

And Kyle’s doing that same sunny grin from fifth grade. He lets Stan put his hands on Kyle’s sides, feels the material beneath his fingers. It’s ‘full-length’ apparently and looks exactly like the tank tops Kenny wears under his orange jacket. 

Neither of them say anything for a long time when Stan points this out, and neither of them admit how stupid they feel afterwards. Instead, Kyle pulls his shirt back on, which is much baggier now and laughs. On the walk to the bus he keeps running his hand down his front and laughing to himself. It’s cute, Stan thinks, and for once he doesn’t berate himself for thinking so. 

That night Kyle comes over and they tag team the Social Studies homework. Stan’s mom brings dinner to them on paper plates and pats Kyle’s head, tells him he looks very strong today. Stan pokes at Kyle’s cheeks and teases about the blush there, he accepts the whack on the thigh it earns him.

That night, Kyle changes out of his binder and into that stupid Terrance and Phillip pullover sweatshirt. Stan had won it for him with a thousand arcade tickets as a joke two years ago and Kyle’s determined to wear it just about every night. The logo on the front is faded but it’s still two sizes too big. The only size the arcade had was an extra-large. Stan complains the entire time, even when Kyle pushes a hand into his face to try and shut him up.

(Stan loves that sweatshirt, that weird lung-flutter hits him every time Kyle wears it, and really every time he sees Kyle. Stan’s starting to think it’s not a medical thing anymore so he isn’t too surprised when Kenny points out that he’s obviously in love with Kyle. Because, yeah. Yeah, that sounds about right.) 

-

It's during the end of year, in the middle of the ninth grade cow eye dissection, that Stan tells him. They both took Anatomy instead of French I for the last semester and the whole class has been buzzing about this day. Kyle is his partner, of course, and has taken complete control. Head bent over the eye on the plate and curls pinned back by Wendy's bobby pins, he'd tried to turn them over to hide the rhinestones. Now two were clinging for dear life near his ear, tangled in his hair and ready to fall. Stan bit back the desire to tuck them back the right way but he had on latex gloves covered in substance he doesn’t want to think about, which would be gross enough that Kyle may never talk to him again. 

Instead he braces his hands against the table edge and says “Kyle, I'm uh I’m gay,” He watches, waits, but Kyle hardly even blinks. He just looks up and smiles a little “Cool, I'm glad you told me first,” and Stan winces a bit because technically Kenny knew first but neither of them would dare to tell Kyle that. 

But Stan kind of wants to tell Kyle that because he wants some kind of a reaction. Maybe not something dramatic, like in the fan fiction Kenny’s sent him, but something. A freeze, a hitch, a fit of stuttering even. He's seen Kyle do it before, like when Cartman says something particularly idiotic or obscene on the rare occasions they still talk. Instead he's gone back to trying to make an incision in the cow’s cornea and Stan tries not to think about the burgers Kenny had inhaled at lunch and instead says what he swore to himself he wouldn't say. 

“I want to date you,” He says, pushing at his fogged up goggles with his knuckles in a weak attempt to look casual. This time Kyle does freeze, scissors poised before he carefully sets them down. He looks up at Stan through his goggles and laughs, breathy and confused. “Is that an invitation or an observation?” Kyle asks, raising an eyebrow. 

Stan pulls at his gloves, trying not to grin because Kyle did this all the time. “An invitation?” He says, failing in dousing confident because what if he's been reading it all wrong? What if Kyle just wanted them to stay friends? 

But then Kyle’s grinning and leaning over the table. His gloves find the edges of Stan’s canvas apron and pull him over like that. The kiss is messy and clumsy, noses bumping and their goggles cracking against each other but Stan files it away as the best moment of his life. Kyle pulls back and even though he's trying to look smug, his blush had spread over his cheeks and up to his ears. Without another word, they both go back to work. Stan risks a look around but everyone is still caught up in their dissection, save for Wendy in her protest corner against animal dissection (though Stan thinks she just doesn't want to touch cow eyes), who's smiling her winning smile. For once Stan smiles back. 

After class, he and Kyle share a science lab sink to wash the scent of latex off their hands and Kyle lands an elbow in his gut. “That was an enthusiastic ‘yes’, by the way,” he says, eyes locked on where he's scraping soap suds out from beneath his fingernails. Stan laughs so hard he snorts. 

Later, instead of going to lunch, they make out in a janitor's closet. It isn't as hot as Stan had hoped. There's no light and he steps on Kyle’s foot. Kyle accidentally shoves him against a shelf and a bottle of Draino land on their heads. But it's still pretty fuckin great.

(He remembers at the beginning of the year, when Kenny had kissed Kyle on a dare at Token’s party. Stan had asked him about it right after, what it was like. Kenny answered without missing a beat, eyes crinkled at the edges as he hid behind his refilled cup. “It’s like being caught in a lightning storm,” And yeah. Yeah, that sounds about right. )


End file.
